Sunday, August 25, 2013

Ferdinand Stoliczka's Memorial

Guest post by Man Mohan Munshi Ji Ferdinand Stoliczka ( Czech, 1838-1874) was a palaeontologist who worked in Indian Palaeontology, Geology and various aspects of Zoology including ornithology and herpetology. Stoliczka studied Geology and Palaeontology at Prague and Vienna graduated with a P.H.D. in 1861. He joined the Geological Survey of India under the British Govt. under Thomas Oldham. He along with W.Thomas Blandford documented the cretaceous fossils of South India. He studied the geology of Western Himalayas, Ladakh and Tibet. He also made two trips to Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He also worked in the Rann of Kutch from where he reported Hunting leopards and Stoliczka’s Bushchat. His third and last expedition to central Asia i.e. 2nd Missions to Yarkand with T.D. Forysth. They set out from Rawalpindi to Leh Shahidulla and finally reached Yarkand in December 1873 and began their return journey in March 1874 and after crossing the Karakorum, he suffered from severe headache from which he could not recover and died at Moorghi village in Ladakh on 16 th June 1874 probably due to acute mountain sickness pulmonary or cerebral oedema. The British Government of India erected a grand memorial as a mark of respect for the service he rendered to the 2nd Yardkand mission.

Memorial of Ferdinand Stoliczka at Leh

Officers of Geological survey of India paying their homage to Stoliczka in 1960s

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